J.K. Rowling is part of a new podcast seemingly all about how she is actually the victim in the wake of her years-long crusade publicly demonizing trans activists.
“You could not have misunderstood me more profoundly,” the Harry Potter author claims in the trailer for The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, which dropped on Tuesday.
Her comments are directly in response to claims she says she has seen in recent years that she has “ruined [her] legacy” by opting to stand in support of TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and double down on anti-trans rhetoric again and again. She even published a whole book where a character is a victim of a “hate campaign” from “social justice warriors” angry about a transphobic cartoon.
Rowling’s refusal to acknowledge the real world harm her stance perpetuates is mind-blowing, and the decision to release the trailer for this podcast just days after a bullied trans teen was murdered in the UK is tone-deaf, at best.
Megan Phelps-Roper, the granddaughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps, is hosting the podcast, which allegedly includes interviews with “people on all sides of this conflict.” Upon the announcement, she tried to insinuate some sort of impartiality and a necessity for good faith discussions between both sides of the table.
Of course, it’s difficult to believe something likening Rowling’s experience using her immense platform to punch down at a community already under fire by lawmakers and facing violence in the streets to “witch trials” could possibly be impartial.
But even beyond the skepticism that this podcast could do anything beyond present Rowling as a martyr, people are just tired. Tired of Rowling’s influence, tired of having to argue that she’s causing damage, and tired of her playing the victim.
“I never set out to upset anyone,” Rowling claims in the podcast trailer. Whether that’s true or not — and there’s been plenty to suggest that it isn’t — she certainly hasn’t gone out of her way to avoid doing harm either.
Does J.K. Rowling own Harry Potter?
Rowling retains the rights to the intellectual property, and thus profits from anything made relating to the world.
Is J.K. Rowling a billionaire?
Rowling's net worth is estimated to be at least £820 million.
Who is Robert Galbraith?
Galbraith is a pseudonym used by J.K. Rowling. Robert Galbraith Heath was a psychiatrist who experimented with and pushed anti-LGBTQ+ conversion therapy through the 20th century, although Rowling claims that is coincidental.
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